Father, two sons displaced by Lauderhill house fire

LAUDERHILL — No one was hurt in a house fire early Thursday, but a father and his two sons have been displaced and their belongings are a total loss.

"The house can be salvaged," said homeowner Anthony Joseph, 56. "But everything inside is completely destroyed. We lost everything. We have no clothes, nothing at all."

The fire broke out about 12:30 a.m. in a bedroom of the home along the 8200 block of Northwest 51st Street.

Joseph said he was watching television when he smelled smoke and saw a cloud of smoke. When he went to investigate he saw his son's bedroom engulfed in quickly spreading flames. He first threw water on the fire and then turned a hose on it, he said.

Joseph's two sons, ages 18 and 20, and a nephew, 21, had been playing video games but had left the house to get something to eat.

When the trio returned, Joseph was in the midst of his failed attempt to extinguish the flames.

"I was trying to put it out, but it spread so quick I had to abandon and went outside to save myself," Joseph said.

Lauderhill firefighters remained at the scene for nearly six hours. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Before the damaged home was sealed up with plywood, Joseph and his sons were allowed to retrieve some belongings.

Joseph said he took nothing more than their passports, his driver's license and credit cards.